Principles for Relationships from God's Word by Claudio Consuegra

The mind shuts off

People with their minds set on you, you keep completely whole, Steady on their feet, because they keep at it and don’t quit. Isaiah 26:3 (MSG)

According to Billy Hallowell, in The Blaze,[i] science offers another reason to stay away from pornography. David Greenfield, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and director of the Center for Internet and Technology Addiction says that, “When you’re in a sexual arousal process where you’re looking at pornography, you’re activating limbic parts of the brain.”

Greenfield explains that the prefrontal cortex — the area where personal decisions are made in light of morals and values — is essentially shut off while viewing porn, with the desire to see more so strong that it supersedes any feelings or cautions someone might have that would potentially hold them back from partaking in such activity. He added, “The frontal cortex sends information back to the hippocampus which says ‘remember the last time you did this, this is not going to feel good,’ the ability for that circuit to occur is hampered.” Addicts also have the same dynamic since they don’t have control over their judgment, leading them to repeated behaviors.

Hallowell also refers to research by Donna Rice Hughes, CEO and president of Enough Is Enough, a nonprofit devoted to ensuring the Internet is a safe place for children, who wrote an article on the subject titled, “The Internet P*rnography Pandemic.” Hughes calls the findings of current research “eye-opening” and claims that Internet smut has a “harmful impact on the emotional, mental and sexual health of young children, tweens and teens.”

God provided us with a brain to not simply operate and control every area of our body. Every sound we hear, everything we taste, everything we feel through our fingers, everything we smell is processed and filled in the brain. In the same way, every image we see is sent to the brain where those images are processed and forever filed there. And the more we watch, the more we want to watch…unless we yield control of our brain over to God.

Father God, take full control of my brain. Clean it, reshape it, and strengthen it that I may be free from anything sinful that controls it.